This is the granddaughter tragic taxi driver Billy Bell will never see.

Baby Abbey Collins was born in November - six months after 44-year-old father of three Mr Bell was killed in a horror smash.

Abbey's grieving mum, Ann Bell, 17, never got to tell her dad he was expecting his first grandchild.

The 17-year-old only found out she was pregnant two weeks after Mr Bell's taxi was rammed off the road by a 17-tonne wagon driven by drunken plant hire boss Thomas Armstrong.

Today, as 37-year-old Armstrong begins a seven-year jail sentence, Mr Bell's family told how their lives have been ripped apart.

As reported in later editions of last night's Chronicle Armstrong, of The Pines, Ulgham, near Morpeth, pleaded guilty to killing Mr Bell in June of last year.

Through his defence counsel Armstrong apologised to the family for the distress he caused.

But Mr Bell's devastated widow, Dawn, 38, today said she could never forgive him for the pain he has caused. Mrs Bell, of Brinkburn Crescent, Ashington, said: "We can never accept his apology. It took him too long to say sorry. If he had done so the next day it might have been different but it should not take nine months.

"Armstrong could be out in five years but he has robbed us of a husband, a father and Abbey of a grandad. He would have been a brilliant grandad. He loved kids. He was always going on about his first grandchild. He couldn't wait.

"Abbey has been our comfort. She has brought a lot of light into our lives and I'm sure Billy is looking down on her. He would have been so proud."

Though at first he denied any involvement, Armstrong eventually admitted causing death by dangerous driving, failing to stop after an accident, having no insurance and a licence offence on the morning his trial at Newcastle Crown was due to begin.

The court heard Armstrong had no HGV licence and had been on a six-hour drinking binge before he climbed into the 17-tonne wagon in an attempt to drive it home.

Mr Bell thought his eldest daughter Rachel, would be the one to give him a grandchild.

But it was youngest daughter Ann who announced to the family she was pregnant just weeks after Mr Bell was killed. On November 15, Ann gave birth at Wansbeck General Hospital, in Ashington.

In February Ann, her partner Lee Collins and the rest of the family fought back tears at Abbey's Christening at St John's Church, Ashington, where Mr Bell was buried months earlier.

Ann said: "It was sad when Abbey was born because my dad wasn't there and Abbey was the spitting image of him. But she has become a focus for all of us. Without Abbey it would have been so much harder for us."

QThe family backed the Chronicle's campaign for tougher sentences for those that kill while behind a wheel, launched after the death of 12-year-old Rebecca Sawyer.

QLord MacKenzie of Framwellgate - a former Durham police officer who now advises the Home Office on law and order - is calling for longer jail terms for killer drivers in the House of Lords today.